Taming Formula 1's wild man

Despite his blunder in Australia, Pastor Maldonado is on the verge of turning his scorching pace into regular results, as Edd Straw discovers

Ask Pastor Maldonado about his propensity to make stupid errors behind the wheel of a racing car and he has a simple answer: "You can always learn from your mistakes, but to be quick is always more difficult than to learn. That's the advantage I have."

He has a point. That said, the record books state that Maldonado's 21 grand prix starts have yielded just a single world championship point. Ammunition, surely, for those who have dismissed him as nothing more than an undeserving no-hoper who glided into Formula 1 on the back of a flutter of bolivas. It was, and remains, an unfair assertion.